1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, a method for controlling the information processing apparatus, and a storage medium storing a computer program.
2. Description of the Related Art
A printing system has been proposed in which a host apparatus such as a plurality of personal computers is connected with an output apparatus such as a printer on a local area network (LAN) in an office. In such a printing system, when the host apparatus instructs the output apparatus to perform printing, generally, installation and initial setting of the output apparatus are completed, and then the host apparatus registers the output apparatus to be used and selects the registered apparatus in printing. The initial setting in installing the output apparatus includes setting of a printer to be connected to a network, filling of toner or ink, and color calibration.
If the output apparatus is an inkjet printer, correction processing of a head, for example, is the initial setting. More specifically, the head correction processing refers to the following processing. For example, the inkjet printer discharges a minute ink droplet from a printer head to form an image, however, an ink discharge position may be slightly shifted due to variation of the printer head in a production stage. The correction processing for performing control to compensate such a slight shift in the ink discharge position is the head correction processing.
When the host apparatus registers a printer as the output apparatus, the host apparatus generally performs the installation of a printer driver and printer registration processing for associating a printer to be used therewith using a setup program. The printer driver is software for using a printer to be registered.
When the host apparatus detects a plurality of printers on the network in the registration processing of a printer, a user of the host apparatus has to identify and select any of printers that the user wants to use in a list. The following method is discussed as a method for identifying a printer to be registered when a plurality of printers is detected on a network. More specifically, a setup program displays a list of address information pieces such as media access control (MAC) address/internet protocol (IP) address of the detected printers and a user selects address information about the printer to be registered from the displayed information pieces to identify the printer to be registered.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-92761 discusses the following network system for identifying a printer to be operated. In the network system, a user presses in advance a mark button provided on the printer to be operated. When the computer detects a printer on the network, the computer acquires information about a state of pressing of the mark button, a mark identification (ID), and a user name and indicates the information to the user. The user identifies the printer to be operated based on the information indicated to the user.
However, there is a problem in the method for identifying the printer to be registered by the user selecting the address information of the printer to be registered from the address information pieces indicated by the setup program. That is, the user needs to confirm the address information to select the address information of the printer to be registered.
More specifically, time-consuming work is required, for a display apparatus such as a liquid crystal panel of the printer main body displaying the address information and the user confirming or printing the displayed address information. Further, a method for selecting the printer to be registered based on a list of numeric values and/or alphabetic characters like the MAC address/IP address of the printer is prone to a human error. Furthermore, the user needs executing a specific operation not only for pressing the mark button, but also for setting the mark ID or the user name in the technique discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-92761. Accordingly, it is not able to identify and register the printer to be registered by a simple operation by the technique discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-92761.
In recent years, an inkjet printer which is low-priced and connectable to a network has been proposed and a wide range of users is used the printer on the network. For this reason, it is required to identify a printer on the network by a simpler operation in a short time period to register the printer to a system.